Director of Cleveland non-Profit sentenced to a year in prison for tax violations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sept. 12, 2013

The director of a Cleveland non-profit organization was sentenced today to a year in prison and ordered to pay more than $237,000 in restitution for withholding taxes from employees but not paying them over to the government, said Steven M. Dettelbach, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

Edward G. Kramer, 62, pleaded guilty to a 10-count criminal information in U.S. District Court in June. In addition to not paying over taxes withheld from employees, Kramer admitted that he also evaded his personal income tax obligations when he falsified his income tax returns for two years and did not file a file return in two other years, according to court documents.

“Today’s sentence is a reminder that we all have an obligation to truthfully report our income and pay taxes,” Dettelbach said. “It is especially incumbent on those who work in our legal system to follow the law themselves.”

Kramer was director and chief counsel of Housing Advocates, Inc., a non-profit organization in Cleveland that received federal funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Kramer also maintained a private law practice and owned a property leasing business called Remark, according to the information.

Kramer underreported his income for calendar years 2007 (underreported by $79,262) and 2008 (underreported by $101,571), the understatement consisting of unreported payments from Housing Advocates accounts for his benefit as well as unreported income from his private law practice, according to the information.

Kramer also failed to file income tax returns for 2009 and 2010, despite the fact that he had taxable income of approximately $149,884 in 2009 and $270,687 in 2010, according to the information.

Collectively, Kramer sought to avoid paying taxes on approximately $500,000 in income between 2007 and 2010, according to the information.

Kramer was responsible for collecting, accounting for and paying over quarterly to the Internal Revenue Service income and FICA taxes on behalf of Housing Advocates, Inc. The organization deducted and collected the required taxes from the wages of its employees but Kramer willfully failed to pay over the taxes, according to the information.

The taxes collected but not paid over from January 2009 until September 2010 total nearly $80,000, according to the information.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin J. Roberts following an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations and the Department of Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General.